


Patterns

by QueenSarge



Category: Banana Bus Squad
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-22
Updated: 2018-03-22
Packaged: 2019-04-06 09:38:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14054109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenSarge/pseuds/QueenSarge
Summary: Once again, Tyler is willing to sacrifice everything for Craig.





	Patterns

Tyler couldn’t remember why he been had chosen to be the sniper, but it wasn’t like anyone else could do it since Lui had broken his arm and all the others were preoccupied with other jobs they’d been assigned. His sniper scope flickered between people, more often than not finding its way back to Mini. Evan had warned him to keep an eye on everyone, but mentioned that Mini deserved a careful eye since, for one reason or another, Evan was convinced he might try something.

 

Tyler didn’t see why, he trusted Craig with his life. But that mostly might be accredited to his huge crush on the tiny nerd. Craig’s eyes flicker over to where Tyler was positioned on a nearby roof, shooting him a tiny smile as Evan went on with the gang deal in front of him. The smile sends a warm feeling throughout his body, and Tyler can’t resist sending a warm grin right back to him. Tyler is about to switch his view over to someone else when Craig shifts, his hand going for the gun Tyler knew was tucked in the back of his jeans, Walking Dead style.

 

He knows there’s no way he can tell Mini to put the gun away without alerting the whole group, so he just bites his lip and prays that Craig doesn’t pull something stupid. Unfortunately, doing stupid shit is pretty much how they got into this mess. So as soon as Craig pulls his gun out and aims it at the gang leader, Tyler shifts his aim, holding back even though he knew that Evan would kill him for not pulling the trigger already. He couldn’t hurt Craig.

 

The gang leader, however, was more than prepared to as he lunged past Evan and went straight for Craig. Not about to let anyone hurt his friends, Tyler pulled the trigger and prayed that he was half as good at aiming as Lui was. He wasn’t.

 

As soon as he pulls the trigger, Craig hits the floor. Evan is immediately whipping around to see Mini bleeding on the floor, yelling into the comms,”Mini’s down!” while Tyler parkoured his way to the ground to get to his friends. Brock barely had time to jump out of the way as Tyler barrels over to Mini’s side, kneeling and taking gasping breaths that seemed to come more from his tears than his exercise. “Fuck, Mini, I’m so sorry,” he repeats over and over, as though saying it will take back his action that he so clearly regrets.

 

Mini just coughs, taking in breaths as wheezy as Tyler’s laugh as he leans into the taller man’s chest, Tyler having cradled the smaller man to his chest as soon as he got close enough to touch Craig. Evan says nothing, his silence spreading through the other members since everyone knew Evan was the most talkative. “I had to, Mini, you pulled a gun on him,” Tyler murmurs, softly but not softly enough as Evan manages to catch the words that were quietly spoken from lips pressed to Mini’s forehead.

 

Brown eyes widen in shock,”Wait a minute, wait wait wait, Mini did what?” Evan sounded incredulous as Brock nodded, apparently having seen him. Considering Lui wasn’t here to do it, Arlan steps forward and boldly presses his hand against their leader’s mouth, effectively shutting him up and shocking the entire gang. The only reason it passed with Lui was his unsurpassable skills, but for some reason the look that the tiny Mexican sent Evan seemed to be enough to quiet him.

 

In the few split seconds when everyone was looking at Arlan, Craig bled to death in Tyler’s arms. There was a few seconds of silent disbelief as Tyler’s whole body seemed to both shut down and comprehend that he’d lost the most important person in the world to him before Tyler went fucking apeshit. He gently set Mini down, stepping away and cursing loudly. ‘FUCK!!” he yells, an infamous tone that almost everyone knew meant to get away before the bomb went off.   
  


Everyone, that is, except Evan. The smaller man walked over to Tyler, bold as he always was despite Nogla advising him not to go near Tyler right now. “Dude, I’m so sorry this happened. I feel–” he’s suddenly cut off when Tyler whips around, grey eyes blazing with pain and fury as tears silently escaped them. He steps toward Evan, who doesn’t in the least bit seem as scared as he should be of the six and a half foot ball of rage in front of him.

 

Evan opens his mouth to say something, only to be cut off by Tyler’s fist smashing into his face. “Tyler, what the fuck?!” Marcel snaps, running over and kneeling beside Evan. Brock steps between Tyler and Marcel, effectively silencing the both of them since no one wanted any harm to come to Brock. Tyler just sighs, shoulders slumping as his grey eyes looked unbearably defeated and sad. “Guys, it’s over,” is all he mumbles as he turns and heads back to the cars, leaving both gangs prepared for a fight and rather confused that Tyler would give up anything so easily.

 

Evan groaned, one hand reaching up to land on the freezing cold ice pack someone had placed in the middle of his face. “What the hell happened? I feel like I got hit by a truck,” he groans, hearing Delirious and Brock giggle quietly. “You did, if Tyler counts as a truck,” Lui replied from the other couch, hands covering his mouth to muffle his laughter.  

 

Evan just rolls his eyes, looking around from his position on the couch to find the guys scattered around his apartment, Delirious sitting on the floor beside him while Moo sat by Brian on the couch Lui watching Nogla in the kitchen from where he sat on the couch by Brock. Droidd was nowhere to be seen, but he could hear Nogla talking to someone in the kitchen and assumed it was Droidd.

 

Evan frowns, looking around the apartment and sitting up. No sign of Tyler, anywhere. “Where’s–” he’s cut off, his question rather obvious as Tyler was the only one missing who everyone was worried about. “At Mini Ladd’s apartment, clearing out his stuff,” Lui replies, heaving out a small, sad sigh.

 

Evan raises an eyebrow,”Why the hell did you let him do it? He’s torn up enough about it,” he groans, glaring at Lui. “He’s the only one with a key, besides he insisted. Said it would help him heal,” Lui just shrugs, as though he had a hard time believing it himself. Evan narrows his eyes, clear disbelief showing through his worried brown orbs as he debates going to Craig’s house.

 

Clearly seeing the worry in Evan’s eyes, Delirious slowly rises as he speaks. “I can go check on him, Evan, if you’re that worried,” he muses, blue eyes never leaving Evan’s figure. “Not that you’re worried about him, but Marcel is with Tyler,” Nogla’s thick accent adds from the other room, causing Evan to realize he’d never noticed Marcel’s disappearance. He just laughs, standing up and clutching his head as he immediately fell back on the couch, the room spinning around him.

 

Delirious moves in seconds, going to sit beside Evan,”You okay, man?” he frets, earning a nod from the disoriented Asian. “Just dizzy,” Evan mumbles, glancing slowly around the room and taking in the sights of his distraught friends. “You’re worried about Tyler, aren’t you?” Delirious guesses, Evan nodding as blue eyes settle on his own brown ones. “I’ll go check on him,” the Southerner decides, getting up and heading out the door without another word, knowing Evan would argue him on the topic should he hesitate even slightly.

 

Pulling up to Craig’s house, Delirious wasn’t sure what he’d find. Marcel was leaning against Tyler’s truck, eyes firmly locked on Delirious as he marched into the house, finding the place just as clean as he’d expect from Mini. Or, most of it was. The house was dead silent save for a soft noise emanating from Craig’s room, which was where he assumed Tyler was at. Following the sound led him to Craig’s door, where he lingered for a moment before finally realizing the sound he heard was Tyler crying, at which point he burst into the room.

 

Whatever he expected to find, it wasn’t Tyler on the floor sobbing. “Tyler,” he softly mumbles, the man’s attention snapping to Delirious and fixing his eyes on the smaller man. “Get the fuck out,” Tyler speaks, voice low and menacing. “No, Tyler, not until you talk to me. I’m worried about yo–”  he cuts himself off when Tyler gets up and crosses the room to push him against the wall. “Get. The  _fuck_. Out of here,” he snaps, voice low and terrifying. He steps away from Delirious, who slips out of the room at the first chance he gets.

 

A few days went by, and Tyler rarely left his room. No one bothered checking on him, as they assumed he was grieving. After a while, though, the worry started to build and there were talks of going to check on him. But no one actually did, until one night at about three in the morning when Brock went to the kitchen to get a glass of water and on his trip back, found smoke pouring from under Tyler’s door.

 

He paused, cautiously stepping forward and pushing the door open, only to let the glass shatter on the floor at what he saw. There was Tyler, his back to Brock, talking to what had to be a demon standing in the smoke. As soon as the glass shattered on the floor, the demon disappeared and Tyler whipped around to face him.

 

Evan leaned out of his doorway, rubbing the sleep off his face as he wandered to Brock, wearing nothing but boxers and Brock had to look at Tyler to avoid the blush he could already feel creeping onto his cheeks that faded once he turned his attention back to the six and a half foot man that loomed eerily above him. “Tyler?” Brock asks, stepping forward cautiously.

 

He can hear Evan behind him in the doorway as he approaches Tyler, tilting his head up to meet the man’s confused blue eyes. “What…” Brock trails off when Tyler speaks,”Who are you?” and Brock’s face falls.

 

Evan’s arms are around him soon as Brock buries his face into the man’s chest, Evan’s hand resting on Brock’s back as Tyler grew twice as confused as he had been before. “What the hell did  _I_  do, I don’t know who the fuck he is!” Tyler yelled, drawing out a very tired Delirious and Lui, who’d both been sleeping but were awoken by Tyler’s loud voice. 

  
  
Delirious marches right up to Tyler once he finds Brock weeping into Evan’s shoulder, bright blue eyes defensive and even bordering on pissed while Lui was simply concerned and stopped to stand beside Evan and watch silently. “What the fuck’s wrong with you, Tyler?” he snaps, only provoking the man more. “I don’t fuckin’ know any of you people, how do you know who I am?” Tyler narrows his eyes and Evan intervenes, leaving Brock with Lui as he steps between Delirious and Tyler’s standoff.

 

Delirious steps closer, only for Evan to lay his hand on the man’s chest as he turns to Tyler. “Look, I think you just need to go,” he sighs, feeling his heart drop out of his chest at the confused, almost lost look in his best friend’s eyes. “Okay,” he shrugs, stepping around Evan and walking out. “What the fuck do we do now, we lost two people in one day!” Delirious points out, only for Evan to glare at him considering no one had wanted the painful reminder.

 

It was four in the morning, and Marcel had already decided that whoever was crazy enough to knock on the door this early in the morning deserved to be shot. No one had slept since Tyler left, Brock wasting most of his time lying on the couch with either Evan or Brian, whoever was awake at the time. Lui had debriefed Nogla and they were speculating on what happened with Delirious, Marcel elected to go find out who was here.

 

He opened the door, not really sure what to expect. But he certainly  wasn’t expecting what he found. “WHAT THE FUCK?!” Marcel’s loud scream had the entire house rushing to the door, expecting to find a pool of blood. Not Craig standing at the door with his head hung, dripping wet with bullet holes in his suit and a shy grin on his face.

 

Lui is the first to tackle him in a grateful hug, and one after another they eventually wrap Craig up in a group hug. Once Craig had been given a fresh change of Tyler’s shirt and his own pants, he sat on the couch nursing a hot cup of some tea that Brock had made waiting for everyone to gather so he could tell his story. “I remember getting in a fight with some gang member, getting shot. Tyler was there, kept apologizing and he was holding me and he was crying and…” he stops abruptly, looking around with something akin to fear shining in his eyes.

 

“Where is he?”

 

No one really knew what to tell him, considering Craig had been closer to Tyler than anyone and hearing that Tyler didn’t remember him might just break Craig’s heart. So they all looked to Evan, most knowing he would be heartless enough to break the news. Evan just sighs, getting up and beckoning for Craig to follow him to Tyler’s room.

 

It was still dark, no one had gone in it. Incense was scattered throughout the room, but Evan had made sure nothing was still lit when they’d left his room. “What’s this on the floor?” Craig walks over, staring down at the weird summoning circle on the floor. Evan just shrugs,”Brock says he saw some weird figure in the room but it vanished soon as he made a sound,” and Craig turns to face him. “You don’t think…” Lui lingers in the doorway,”He made some sort of deal with the devil to get you back?” the small man finishes, eyebrows raised as Evan turns to look at them. 

  
  
“But what would he have sacrificed? They don’t exactly take currency,” Craig points out, and Evan’s eyes light up as he comes up with the answer. “I know what it is,” Evan mumbles, covering his face as Craig’s curiosity immediately piques. “What? What is it?” he asks, eyes desperate and clearly worried about Tyler, but Evan just shakes his head.

 

* * *

 

Weeks went by and it was like Tyler had died, and Craig was broken. Eventually one day the boys convinced him to go out, they went shopping and dragged him along with them to the mall. He’d been sitting on a bench outside of some shoe store when there, across the way in some sports store, was Tyler. Craig ran at him and slammed into Tyler, wrapping his arms around the taller man and sending him reeling a few feet as Evan ran after Craig as soon as he’d noticed the man was gone.

 

Tyler looked down at him, and the vacant look in his eyes where Craig knew something akin to love had once been, destroyed what was left of his broken heart. Evan gingerly pries Craig off, apologizing profusely to Tyler who just shakes his head,”Whatever man, just…I don’t wanna know anymore,” he mutters, turning and walking away as Evan sits on the bench just outside, cradling Craig as the man sobbed into Evan’s chest.

 

* * *

  
No one had seen or mentioned Tyler in months, but they all knew something was missing without him. Craig did his missions alone now, refusing help whenever it was offered. Nogla worried that maybe Craig was shutting them out, insisted that the look in his eyes was of a man who was dead inside. But no one listened, they all waved it off and insisted that he was fine, just learning how to cope.   
  
Nogla had always had a knack for knowing when his friends were upset. Which was why he’d insisted on being Craig’s partner and messing all the groups up. This left Brock on his own, who swore he could handle robbing one convenience store alone. Everyone believed him, they had no reason not to. Brock could handle himself, or at least Evan had faith in him.

 

“How ya holding up, Brock?” Evan had asked once he finished his robbery with Lui. “Uhh…I…” Brock sounded sincerely torn, as though his heart was being ripped in half in front of his very eyes. “Craig, what’s going on?” Evan turned to Craig for answers, considering he was driving past Brock on his way back with Nogla after finishing up his own robbery.   
  
Craig shrugged despite knowing Evan couldn’t see him. “I’ll check,” he mutters, taking a right and parking beside Brock’s car, getting out and stopping with the doors halfway open. “Oh, fuck…” is Nogla’s hushed whisper, only further irritating Evan since that told him nothing about what was going on. “What is it?” he demands, Nogla simply shaking his head. “Not  _what_ , Evan.  _Who_ ,” and Nogla walks past Craig, stopping just in front of him with the most broken look in his eyes. “Who the fuck is it?” Evan snaps, only to be answered by someone else this time.

 

Craig’s tear filled whimper breaks the silence,”Tyler?” and the entire comms system falls silent in awe. “Oh, no,” Lui mumbles, Evan covering his face. He hadn’t planned on this, no one had. “Are you fuckers trying to rob me?!” is Tyler’s voice that all of them could recognize anywhere. “Well,” before Nogla can finish his sentence, or even begin it, Tyler cuts him off. “Not today, bitch,” and  something about him changes.

 

It’s so minuscule that no one could notice it, but Craig does. He notices everything about Tyler. The way his muscles tense up when he raises the gun he’d hidden under the counter, the way he only had to pull the trigger twice to realize that he somehow knew exactly what he was doing.

 

In the blink of an eye, Brock was bleeding out from two shots to the skull and Nogla was screaming and Craig was frozen in place. But for some reason, Craig reacts fastest and tackles Nogla, grabbing the man and escaping the store before either could fire any more shots. “What the fuck happened?” Evan asks once Craig and Nogla are in the car, but Nogla ignores Evan in favor of yelling at Craig.

 

Craig flinches at his tone, mostly because he wasn’t expecting it. “What the fuck is wrong with you, Craig? You protecting him? He fucking shot Brock, didn’t even bat an eye and you’re protecting him why, because you fancy him?!” Craig doesn’t say anything, steeling his expression and fixing his eyes on the road. “Don’t fucking say that, I do  _not_  fancy Tyler,” Craig snaps, and Nogla almost laughs.

 

“Yes, you fuckin’ do! Don’t think we’re all blind, Craig, we saw how you two looked at each other,” he glares at Craig, who bites his cheek before replying. “So what if I do fancy him, not like he ever did me! At least, not anymore,” Craig’s voice softens near the end of his sentence, and Nogla raises his eyebrows incredulously. 

  
Evan chuckles briefly over the radio, but Nogla ignores him in favor of yelling,”Of course he fancied you, ya bloody idjit! He sacrificed all his memories just to get you back, didn’t he?” and Craig sighs. “Well now he doesn’t know who the fuck I am, so what does it matter?” everyone falls silent after that and immediately the silence turns uncomfortable.

 

* * *

  
Months went by and Evan had died inside, that much was obvious. After losing Tyler and then Brock so soon after, Delirious never left his side for more than a few minutes at a time. Craig and Nogla had more or less stopped talking, and Craig was shutting himself out from the rest of the group, starting to bottle up his feeling and drink them away only to stumble in at four in the morning and pass out on the couch.

 

It was a sad routine that everyone was used to. Lui and Marcel tried to bring the group back together, but it wasn’t getting very far if it got anywhere at all. But one night, a sticky mid-June night, he didn’t. Evan stumbled out of his room one morning in nothing but boxers, frowning when he found the kitchen empty.

  
It wasn’t like he wasn’t expecting it, but a little part of him died inside whenever he woke up and the kitchen was empty, when normally Tyler would be there with a pan in hand and a grin on his face, laughing and telling Evan he couldn’t get pancakes until he got clothes on. Or whenever he went to sit on the couch and watched a scary movie all the way through without Brock latching onto him at every scary part and whimpering until Evan told him it was safe.

 

He just missed how the house used to feel like home, and now it felt like a vacant widow’s nightmare. No one laughed anymore, not like Brock used to. He could light up the entire room, make it seem a little brighter with his jolly tone. But now the entire house seemed dull, even Lui lost the bounce in his step and smiled a little less.   
  
Marcel had stopped reacting so much, became harder to scare and even when he was scareable, it wasn’t worth it. No one laughed sincerely and they hadn’t in months. “We have to get out of this fucking house, Craig,” Evan had muttered when he heard a door slam and assumed it to be Craig coming home late.

 

His heart stopped when he heard Lui’s confused tone,”It’s me, who are you talking to Evan?” and he whipped around. Craig was gone, and he knew immediately that something was wrong. “Fuck! Craig never came home last night, something must’ve happened,” and Lui sighed brokenly, as though he wasn’t ready to deal with losing someone else, not again and certainly not this soon.

 

But, it was an unspoken bond that they both knew they’d go searching for him anyway, even if it was five in the morning. They searched the bar, but it had closed an hour ago and they just kept walking, searching every other bar until they found an open one, but he wasn’t there.

  
It wasn’t until they heard that wheezing laugh that they both knew what happened. Evan could recognize that laugh even if it was far past intoxicated, mangled to the point that you couldn’t tell if it was a laugh or not. But Evan knew, which was what had him running to its source.

  
There they were, Tyler standing in front of Craig and keeping him trapped between a body twice his size and the railing that overlooked the beach, which loomed at least three stories below. But Craig was stuck anyway, Tyler was flashing him that grin that always melted Craig, and Evan was sure it had stolen his heart years ago.

 

Lui lingered just behind Evan, he could hear Lui’s scared breathing and felt it on his shoulder. “That grin is dangerous,” he mumbles, Lui almost hides behind Evan as though he’s scared of Tyler, but they both know Tyler as the sweet, protective friend they’d always known.

 

Which only added to their surprise when Tyler leaned in, his lips almost brushing Craig’s and they all knew Craig was done for, he’d never lay a hand on Tyler except to protect him despite their months of planning that had led them here. Evan wanted revenge, and if Craig was putty in Tyler’s hands that left Evan to do it himself.

 

But he didn’t have a chance to, as Tyler whipped out a gun and shot Craig as soon as he heard the boards creak under Evan’s foot. Evan raises his gun to shoot at Tyler, but the man has already hit the floor and covered his face. “Fuck, not again,” he drops his gun, and Lui steps around Evan to walk up to Tyler. “I can’t fucking believe I actually got him back and fuckin’ killed him again,” Tyler’s voice sounds as broken as the man himself, and Lui feels broken at the mere sound of him talking.

Evan raises his gun while both their backs are turned, but he can’t pull the trigger. Not on his best friend. Even if he is a murderer. So he just shakes his head, slipping the gun away and walking over to rest his hand on Tyler’s shoulder. 


End file.
